Articles

	Walker Art Center Recipient of National Design Award May 2009 The Walker Art Center was recently recognized for its expertise in the area of Design with a prestigious honor. Underscoring the institution’s continued leadership and innovation, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum announced that the Walker is the recipient of its 2009 National Design Award... read more »

	FlatPak in the Garden September 2008 If you’ve ever biked along the Cedar Lake Trail, you’ve probably encountered a modern house set among the stately Victorian homes in the Kenwood neighborhood. Built in 2004–2005, the home is a prototype for FlatPak, a prefabricated system for residential architecture designed by Charlie Lazor of... read more »

	Artists and Architects Think Inside the Big Box Matt Peiken March 2008 What happens when good malls go bad? You don't have to look far for answers. Hundreds of so-called "dead malls"--shuttered strip malls, derelict shopping centers, and abandoned big boxes litter our landscape. Among those leading the efforts to reimagine, resuscitate, and reincarnate these husks are... read more »

	Uncommon Ground Shane Coen /Tom Oslund September 2006 In October, Minneapolis will host one of the largest gatherings of landscape architects. The Twin Cities is an appropriate place for such an event—in addition to its renowned parks system, it is also home to two of the nation’s most acclaimed landscape architecture firms, Coen+Partners and... read more »

	8-BALL: Charlie Lazor November 2005 One of Blu Dot’s founding triumvirate, Charlie Lazor is also the principle of Minneapolis-based architectural firm Lazor Office. In 2004 he completed FlatPak House, a prefabricated home for his family in Kenwood. Lazor recently took time to answer some of life’s... read more »

	The State of Design September 2005 “With the reopening of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis now seems poised to become a major design mecca,” wrote Metropolis in May 2005. Walker design director and curator Andrew Blauvelt takes issue with the magazine’s use of the future tense. With a rich design community working in artistic,... read more »

	Edward Larrabee Barnes Andrew Blauvelt 2005 The Walker Art Center project was the first of many museum commissions that New York–based architect Edward Larrabee Barnes would receive during his long and distinguished career. In May 1971, the new building opened to great critical acclaim and quickly became a national model for museum design.... read more »

	Matthew Carter Andrew Blauvelt 2005 Since its inception, the Walker Art Center has embraced design not only as a programming activity but also as an important element in forming its public image. The Walker practically invented the modernist institutional identity for museums, which favored sans-serif typefaces, generous white space,... read more »

	Herzog & de Meuron Andrew Blauvelt 2005 In 1999, the Walker Art Center engaged the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron to develop a master plan and design for an expanded facility. Central to the Walker’s vision was the creation of not only additional galleries to display its growing collections, but also new spaces, such as a... read more »